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The Problem 

in 

The South 

By 

President Charles W. Dabney 

of the 
University of Tennessee 

AN ADDRESS BEFORE THE 

SOUTHERN EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 

COLUMBIA, S. C. DEC. 28, 1901 




NEW YORK 

General Education Board 
1903 



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/ 



THE PROBLEM IN THE SOUTH 



Nothing could be more erroneous than the 
common impression in the South that the 
public school is a northern or New England 
invention. The fact is, that Thomas Jefferson 
was the first conspicuous advocate in this 
country of free education in common schools 
supported by local taxation as well as of 
state aid to higher institutions of learning. 
To him the schoolhouse was the fountain- 
head of happiness, prosperity and good gov- 
ernment, and education was the "holy cause" 
to which he devoted the best thought and 
efforts of his life. According to Jefferson, 
the objects of the public school were: 



1 To give to every citizen the information he needs for 
the transaction of his own business. 

2 To enable him to calculate for himself, and to express 
and preserve his ideas, his contracts, and his accounts in 
writing. 

3 To improve, by reading, his morals and faculties. 

4 To understand his duties to his neighbors and country, 
and to discharge, with competence, the functions confided 
to him by either. 

5 To know his rights; to exercise, with order and 
justice, those he retains; to choose, with discretion, the 
fiduciary of those he delegates, and to notice their conduct 
with diligence, with candor, and with judgment. 

6 And in general, to observe, with intelligence and faith- 
fulness, all the social relations under which he shall be 
placed. 

Jefferson's educational plan, which he pre- 
pared for the state of Virginia, provided, first, 
"for elementary schools in every county, 
'which will place every householder within 
three miles of a school; district schools, which 
will place every father within a day's ride of 
a college where he may dispose of his son; 
a university in a healthy and central situation.'" 

Where will you find a better system of 
public education than this? Jefferson suc- 
ceeded in founding a state university, but an 
aristocratic organization of society rendered 



it impossible for even Jefferson to establish 
a complete system of public schools. Schools 
for poor children were established in Virginia, 
as in other southern states, but she had no 
system of public schools, properly speaking, 
until the civil war had destroyed her old in- 
stitutions and so prepared the way. 

Jefferson devoted the best portion of his 
life to the establishment of the University of 
Virginia, but he never advocated university 
education at the expense of the public schools. 
He labored for all forms of public education, 
but he evidently considered the common 
school the most important. He says in a 
letter to Cabell: "Were it necessary to give 
up either the primary or the university I would 
rather abandon the last, because it is safer to 
have a whole people respectably enlightened 
than a few in a high state of science and 
many in ignorance. This last is the most 
dangerous state in which a nation can be. 
All the nations and governments of Europe 
are proofs of it." The aristocratic attitude 
of the colleges of the day angered him, 
and he urged, in a letter to Cabell (Nov. 28, 



l82o) that "the friends of this university (the 
University of Virginia) take the lead in 
proposing and effecting a practical scheme of 
elementary schools and assume the character 
of friends rather than opponents of that ob- 
ject." Jefferson taught that the chief duty of 
the state institution for higher education is 
the promotion of the interest of public schools 
of all grades. The state university or state 
college which is indifferent to the interest of 
the public schools, is a monstrosity that 
should not be tolerated for a single year. 

The Father of Democracy believed in an 
educational qualification for the suffrage. 
Said he, "If a nation expects to be ignorant 
and free in a state of civilization, it expects 
what never was and never will be." Speaking 
of the new constitution of Spain in 1814, he 
said: "There is one provision which will 
immortalize its inventors. It is that which, 
after a certain epoch, disfranchises every 
citizen who cannot read and write. This is 
new and is the fruitful germ of the improve- 
ment of everything good and the correction 
of everything imperfect in the present con- 



stitution. This will give you an enlightened 
people and an energetic public opinion, which 
will control and enchain the aristocratic spirit 
of the government." 

Our duty to the new time in the South is 
the duty of educating all the people. It is 
the task set by Jefferson for Virginia in 1779, 
only changed and made more urgent by the 
extension of suffrage to another race. This 
is the real southern problem : How shall we 
educate and train the people ? It is the prob- 
lem of the whole country, in fact. How shall 
we educate all the people for intelligent 
citizenship, for complete living, and the true 
service of their God and fellow-men? 

Our conception of public education has 
grown very greatly in these last years. It has 
grown in two ways: first, in content, and 
second, in kind. This conception now in- 
cludes every human being; we realize, now, 
that all must be educated — that every human 
being has a right to an education. God has 
a purpose in every soul He sends into the 
world. The poorest, most helpless infant is 
not an accident, a few molecules of matter, 



merely, but a "plan of God," as Phillips 
Brooks has said, destined to do a definite 
work in the universe; it is a part of the divine 
plan of creation, and, as such, deserves to be 
trained for its work. This, it seems to me, 
is the fundamental argument for universal 
education — that every child has a right to a 
chance in life, because God made him and 
made him to do something. 

Our conception has also grown in kind ; it 
now includes all training which fits the man 
for better living and service. " That the man 
of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished 
unto all good works," says St. Paul. Not 
perfect for his own self-satisfaction merely, 
but perfect for service; and not thoroughly 
furnished and equipped with every tool re- 
quired for his work, merely for the purpose 
of completeness, as the king's palace is 
furnished, to be looked at, but thoroughly 
furnished unto all good works. The primary 
object of education is, perhaps, to make the 
man perfect, but the ultimate object is service. 
And not one kind of service merely, as we 
used to think, or even a few kinds of 



service, like the four learned professions- 
law, medicine, teaching and preaching— the 
only callings for educated boys in the old 
days, but all good works, all professions in 
life, are the ends of education. 

All forms of service are equally honorable. 
Each profession demands the trained man. 
The aim of education is to discover what 
each person can do and to train him to do it. 
So, also, we have come to realize at 
last that there is no aristocracy in education. 
There is no particular class to be educated, 
for education is for all. It is not a matter 
of higher education for one class and lower 
education for another. For, correctly speak- 
ing, there is no higher education and no 
lower education, except in order of time; 
in order of merit there is no primary edu- 
cation and no secondary education; properly 
speaking, there is no scientific education, for 
all education should be scientific; and no 
technical education, for all education should 
be technical in the sense that it is applicable 
to the work of life. These terms only de- 
scribe imaginary parts of our education, which 



are not scientifically different. We make too 
much of these terms. Let's take a broader 
view of the great subject and understand, 
once for all, that it is only education, train- 
ing, the all-education of all, the education 
of all men to do all the work for which 
God made them. 

Our mistake has been in supposing that 
each one was made of the same metal and 
could be molded in the same old mold of 
the classical curriculum. We are come now 
to know that there are as many molds as 
there are men; that each human soul is a 
unique monad — to be trained in accordance 
with the laws of his own being. 

Universality and diversity are thus the 
two principles of education. Each soul has 
a right to an education, and that education 
should be in accordance with his God-given 
nature. These are the principles that 
underlie all systems of public education. 
Testing our public schools in the South by 
them, we will see finally how wretchedly 
we have failed. 

In the first place, how fully have we 



applied the principle of universality, that is, 
the education of all the people? Our doc- 
trine supposes an equal opportunity for an 
elementary education, at least, for every child 
in the commonwealth. Have we provided 
this'? We well know we have not. 

But we must consider our problem more 
nearly and in more detail. Our problem is 
the education of all the people of the South* 
First, who are this people? In 1900 these 
states south of the Potomac and east of 
the Mississippi contained, in round numbers, 
16,400,000 people, 10,400,000 of them white 
and 6,000,000 black. In these states there 
are 3,981,000 white and 2,420,000 colored 
children of school age ( 5 to 20 years), a 
total of 6,401,000. They are distributed 
among the states as follows: 





Wh 


ite 


Colored 


Total 


Virginia . 


436 


000 


269 000 


705 000 


West Virginia 


342 


000 


15 000 


357 000 


North Carolina 


491 


000 


263 000 


754 000 


South Carolina 


218 


000 


342''ooo 


560 000 


Georgia . . 


458 


000 


428 000 


886 000 


Florida . . 


no 


000 


87 000 


197 000 


Alabama. 


390 


000 


340 000 


730 000 


Mississippi . 


253 


000 


380 000 


633 000 


Tennessee . 


. 590 


000 


191 000 


781 000 


Kentucky . 


693 

3 981 


000 

000 
II 


105 000 


798 000 


Total . . 


2 420 000 


6 401 000 



What an army of young people to be 
educated I How they are marching on ! 
Many of them are already beyond our help; 
all will be in less than lo years; and still 
they come marching up from the cradles 
into American citizenship. 

The important question is, what are we 
in the South doing for these children? Let 
us see! Only 60 per cent of them were 
enrolled in the schools in 1900. The aver- 
age daily attendance was only 70 per cent 
of those enrolled. Only 42 per cent are 
actually at school. One half of the negroes 
get no schooling whatever. One white child 
in five is left wholly illiterate. Careful analy- 
sis of the reports of state superintendents 
showing the attendance by grades, indicates 
that the average child, whites and blacks to- 
gether, who attends school at all stops with 
the third grade. In North Carolina the 
average citizen gets only 2.6 years, in South 
Carolina 2.5 years, in Alabama 2.4 years of 
schooling, both private and public. In the 
whole South the average citizen gets only 3 
years of schooling of all kinds in his entire 



life; and what schooling it is! This is the 
way we are educating these citizens of the 
republic, the voters who will have to deter- 
mine the destinies not only of this people 
but of millions of others beyond the seas. 
Have we not missionary work enough to 
do here at our own doors without going to 
Cuba, Porto Rico or the Philippines*? 

But why is it that the children get so 
little education? Have we no schools in 
the country? Yes, but what kind of schools? 
The average value of a school property in 
North Carolina is $180, in South CaroHna 
$178, in Georgia $523, and in Alabama 
$212. The average salary of a teacher in 
North Carolina is $23.36, in South Carolina 
$23.20, in Georgia $27, and in Alabama 
$27.50. The schools arc open in North 
Carolina an average of 70.8 days, in South 
Carolina 88.4, in Georgia 112, and in Ala- 
bama 78.3. The average expenditure per 
pupil in average attendance is, in North 
Carolina $4.34, in South Carolina $4.44, in 
Georgia $6.64, and in Alabama $3.10 per 
annum. In other words, in these states, in 

13 



schoolhouses costing an average of $276 
each, under teachers receiving the average 
salary of $25 a month, we are giving the 
children in actual attendance 5 cents worth 
of education a day for 87 days only in the 
year. This is the way we are schooling the 
children. Is it any wonder that they do not 
attend school when we provide no more for 
them? 

Now behold the results in the adult 
people I Figures for illiteracy are a poor 
index of the condition of the people as re- 
gards education, but they certainly signify 
much. Comparing the percentages of white 
illiterates over 21 years of age in the southern 
states since 1840, we find that while they 
increased during and immediately after the 
civil war, they have decreased very slowly 
since. These percentages in typical southern 
states have just gotten back to where they 
were in 1850. In other words, among the 
whites of the South we have as large a 
proportion of illiterate men over 21 years 
of age as we had 50 years ago. In a half 
century we have made no progress in lift- 

14 



ing the dark cloud of ignorance from our 
own race. You will be startled, as I was, 
at this statement, but hear. In 1900 the 
percentage of illiterates among males over 
21 — native whites, mind you, the sons of 
native parents — was, in Virginia ii.j", in 
North Carolina 19, in South Carolina 12.6, 
in Georgia 12.1, in Alabama 14.2, in Ten- 
nessee 14.5, and in Kentucky 15.5. In 
Mississippi it is only 8.3, a marked dif- 
ference directly traceable to their better 
schools, established some 12 years ago. 
These are not negroes, but grtown white 
men, the descendants of the original southern 
stock. 

In the second place, let us consider how 
schools stand as regards the principle of 
diversity — the education of every man in 
accordance with his God-given nature. Of 
all the public schools in the country per- 
haps those of the South are the most 
completely devoted to the "three R's," 
which some one has described as "little 
arithmetic, less reading, and least writing." 
Having received their methods from the 



15 



church schools, the colleges for higher edu- 
cation were also devoted almost exclusively 
to the classics, philosophy, and theology. 
These facts are too well known to need 
amplification. 

The South is an agricultural section; 
its people must always support themselves 
by the rural arts. The problem of the South, 
therefore, like most sections of our country, 
in fact, is the problem of the rural schools. 
The problem of making money enough 
to support a good system of public schools 
is the problem of improving the agricult- 
ural production. Until the farmer can 
make more he cannot give much more 
for the support of schools. Before the 
people in the sparsely settled rural districts 
can build worthy schools they must have 
productive farms and good roads to take 
their produce to market. The campaign 
for better schools is, therefore, closely asso- 
ciated with that for good roads and for 
the improvement of agriculture. In fact, 
these three things must all go forward to- 
gether. The methods of agriculture must 

i6 



be raised throughout the country, and good 
roads must be built, before the people can 
support rural schools worthy the name. 
V Our special problem, therefore, is the 
establishment of rural schools where the 
elements of natural science and industrial 
arts are taught. Of all sections of our 
country, the South is thus most in need 
of industrial education of all kinds. 

The indifference to education among 
country people grows out of a misunder- 
standing of what education is. The people 
are sick of the old education. The true 
education supports the life that the man 
or the woman is to lead; it is training 
for complete living. How absurd, yes, 
how wicked it is then to train the farmer's 
children, who must live in contact with 
nature on the farm, in a fashion that fits 
them only to be bookkeepers or sales- 
women in a city. The trouble with the 
old education was that it educated all of 
the bright young people out of the country. 
The new education is related to the eco- 
nomic life of the people and prepares them 



17 



for the industries in which they are to make 
their living. The true education trains men 
to think right, on a straight line, to feel 
right, to will right, to do right — and so to 
be right ; it makes character — not merely 
abstract goodness, but practical efficiency — 
the character that does good things! 

There are many great problems before the 
southern people, but the greatest problem 
we have to solve in this generation is that 
of the rural industrial school. 

Such is the situation that confronts us, 
such is the problem we must solve. The 
great question is. How shall all the people 
of the South be educated and trained for 
actual life *? Who is to do this work *? 
Shall individuals do it? Shall the churches 
do it ? We have relied upon them largely 
in the past, and they have indeed done noble 
work for southern people, as for the people 
of all sections of our country. We need 
the church schools, but we know at the same 
time that the churches can never educate 
all the people. We have come to believe 
with Horace Mann that: "Every follower 

i8 



of God and friend of mankind will find 
the only sure means of carrying forward 
the particular reform to which he is de- 
voted in universal education. In whatever 
department of philanthropy he may be en- 
gaged, he will find that department to be 
only a segment of the great circle of benefi- 
cence of which universal education is the 
center and circumference." 

The churches must take part in the work 
of universal education ; every agency for the 
advancement of the interests of humanity 
may and should help in this great work; 
but the state is the only agency which can 
reach all the people. The state should en- 
courage all societies and individuals to aid 
in this work. But it makes no difference 
how many of them are in the field; it 
must take upon itself the great burden of 
educating all the people. Education is 
the best preventive of crime, it is the only 
method of preparing men for intelligent and 
faithful citizenship, it is the best method of 
increasing the productivity of the people 
and so increasing the wealth of the state. 

19 



All this is true, but we do not rest the 
argument for state education upon this alone. 
It is the duty of the state to educate the 
entire population because it is the only 
possible way in which the entire popula- 
tion can be educated and trained ; and every 
soul has a right to this opportunity for 
training. 

If this is true, everything the state possesses 
should be dedicated to the cause of edu- 
cation first of all. As each citizen holds 
all his property in trust for the good of 
all, so the state, made up of us ail, holds 
all its wealth in trust for the benefit of 
all its members. It is the commonwealth^ 
the wealth of all. 

But is wealth — the material things of life 
— the essence of the commonwealth? What 
constitutes the state — the material possessions 
of its people % No, as important as material 
wealth is, it does not constitute the common- 
wealth. What, then, constitutes the state — 
the men and women of today? No, as in- 
fluential as they are, they do not make a 



state. What, then, constitutes the state — the 
fathers who won our liberties and the mothers 
who trained our great men*? No, as brave 
and good as they were, they alone do not 
form the state of today. What, then, does 
constitute the commonwealth "? The succes- 
sive generations of men and women taken 
collectively, all past, all present, and all to 
come, these constitute the commonwealth. 
As the people of the past owed a duty to 
us, so we owe a duty to all who follow us. 
All the property of the commonwealth, all 
the mind, intellect and soul of all its people, 
all its past glory, and its present power — 
all the state has been, is, and will be, is 
pledged for the education of all its youth. 
The commonwealth exists only for the chil- 
dren of today and those of the future. To 
rob them of the opportunity for education 
is, then, the greatest crime of which the 
state can be guilty. 

This is not only Jefferson's doctrine, it 
is the true meaning of the fatherhood of 
God and the brotherhood of man ; this is 



yu ic 



what the Master meant when He said, 
" Suffer little children to come unto me " ; 
and this is the significance of His parting 
charge, "Inasmuch as ye did it unto one 
of the least of these, ye did it unto me." 



1 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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022 166 208 8 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

022 166 208 8 



HoUinger 

pH8.5 

Mill Run F3-1 955 



